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The Ganges River Like You've Never Seen It Before

For his latest book, artist Caleb Cain Marcus turned his lens to the 1,560-mile Ganges and captured its far-reaching impact. Click through to see a few of the powerful photos that make up the collection.

The Ganges River Like You've Never Seen It Before

For his latest book, artist Caleb Cain Marcus turned his lens to the 1,560-mile Ganges and captured its far-reaching impact. Click through to see a few of the powerful photos that make up the collection.

Bathers gather along the river in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

New York–based photographer Caleb Cain Marcus creates the same dreamlike monumentality in his images of both the natural and the urban worlds—whether in his series on the luminous glaciers in Iceland and beyond, the eerily empty streets of New York City at night, or the riverscapes along the Ganges in his new book, Goddess.

Boats along the banks of the Ganges in Varanasi.

For a month and a half, Cain Marcus traveled more than 1,500 miles, documenting the sacred body of water from its Himalayan source to its mouth at the Bay of Bengal.

A market in Bihar.

With their painterly light and color, his spacious landscapes seem to address the tension between the river as the embodiment of the Hindu goddess Ganga and its role as economic engine, providing irrigation for nearly half of India’s crops.

Near Bijnor

“The Ganges is a spiritual and practical lifeline—it’s important to remember that its vitality is a central issue,” says Cain Marcus.

West Bengal

He’s referring, of course, to its ongoing pollution problem, which his large-scale misty photos subliminally evoke.

Uttar Pradesh

We see worshippers, fishermen, brickmakers, and children all sharing its life. It’s a communal beauty, he reminds us, and well worth protecting.